Hunter
by Legacy of the Dark
Summary: You've probably read books, watched shows or movies of a world torn apart by war, by the undead. But now, it's something more. We're not the only ones in danger anymore. As everything falls apart, bit by bit, the only way to save not only ourselves, but everyone around us, is to come together. The question is: Are you the hunter or are you the one being hunted?
1. 1 Core Crisis

**_Chapter 1: Core Crisis_**

Sam's POV

I found myself walking towards the cafeteria, it felt routine at this point. Shortly after arriving, I quickly found my friends, though the mood seemed to be quieter than usual. I have a weird feeling about today, it's almost a nervous, anxious feeling. Maybe it's just because it's Monday morning. Everyone seemed to be here, though. Well, almost everyone.

"Hey, Sam." someone greeted before I even arrived at the table. The same person is also one of my closest friends, June. I returned the greeting, albeit it coming out as a tired mumble.

Even ass tired as I was, I managed to hold a conversation with my friends until the bell rang.

Most of that morning went by slowly, and despite being really tired, I managed to stay awake through all my classes.

The weird nervous feelng never went away. Normally, nervousness was normal, whether it be something for school or doing something outside of school, but this feeling was a nagging anxiety, a feeling that told me something wasn't right.

Anyways, when lunch came around, the last thing I had expected to see when I walked to our usual spot, was a person. A very strange, mysterious person at that. This person was standing right in the middle, wearing a cloak with a hood. Their face was covered, mostly by shadow. I looked around to see everyone pressed up against the wall, looking more shocked than scared.

"Wh-who are you?" was the first thing that came out of my mouth. The mystery person turned his attention to me, although, he didn't reply. Even though I couldn't see most of their face, t was like they could see into my soul, it was creepy, and I've experienced creepy.

And then there was the voice. It seemed to come from everywhere and nowhere at once. It sounded like more than one person was talking but they all had the same voice. It was really weird.

"You have been chosen by the Angels. All will be explained when the time comes but until then, don't die." With that, the hooded figure lifted one hand and everything flashed in flames of white.

It didn't last very long but as soon as the white flames danced out of my vision, I found myself sitting, which meant I had probably fallen over when that had happened.

I blinked the remaining spots of my vision out before glancing around. Everyone had landed somewhere nearby, just as disoriented.

"I'm guessing you're part of the Chosen?" called a male voice. I looked around, confused, before I spotted him, dressed in full armor. His armor was black and red, marked with what seemed like dragons. He had dark blue eyes, and short light brown hair

"Y-yeah, I guess." I stuttered, not having gathered myself enough to try to get up. He walked over to me, and held out a hand, as I was the only one not on my feet. I took his hand and he helped me up.

"Well, I was assigned to bring you all to the Prophet." He said, motioning for us to follow as he walked off.

"Why not the guy in charge?" One of my friends, Chris, asked. I was just as curious, wouldn't whoever was in charge want to see us?

"As of now, it is not necessary for him to be there, but he'll be there." He explained, without even looking at us.

The city we were walking through looked old, but it also looked taken care of, it's hard to describe. It's kind of like we were transported into a video game. Many of the people walking past us were dressed in either armor, robes, or the occasional various clothing that made them look somewhat like a civilian.

"Hey, what's this about anyways? Why is it that you need us? You seem to be well trained enough." Someone from behind me asked, someone I had met recently, May had asked this.

"I wouldn't know, the Angels probably foresaw something coming and thought it would be good to have you all here as soon as possible." Was all we got. Obviously, nothing had happened, not yet anyways. "If anything, the beings in the forest, along with the Shadow, are growing restless, growing powerful."

I don't get it though, if we were "chosen", it probably means we hold all this power, but if nothing's happening now, what could this mean? I shook this from my thoughts, deciding not to worry about it too much.

Anyways, I couldn't help but admire how everything seemed so ancient, and by the looks of it, anyone wearing armor carried various weapons, from swords to guns. But not once had I seen someone carry bow and arrows or anything bigger than a handgun. I was going to ask, but the question never came.

In my wonder, I didn't notice us stop, so I ended up walking into him. He looked over his shoulder at me curiously, resulting me looking back at him with an apologetic look.

"We're here." The place we ended up at wasn't all too fancy, it was small. If he hadn't shown us, would've mistaken it for any other house, but I guess that's what this guy was going for.

"Are you ready?" He asked, as he went to open the door.

We all looked at each other, an uneasy look exchanged between all of us. But we ended up nodding anyways, despite not knowing what we were getting into.

I wasn't expecting anything exciting about today, but who would've known I'd end up being a hero.


	2. 2 Trained Ear

_**Chapter 2: Trained Ear**_

Lance's POV

I followed the others in after an uneasy silent agreement. Once inside, first thing I noticed was that the 'Prophet' wasn't an old man.

Was that what you were thinking? Same here.

Well, we thought wrong.

One, "he" is actually a "she", and two, she is actually our age.

"Welcome, young heroes." She greeted, her voice was melodic, almost bird-like. She had fiery red hair that reached mid-back, and bright green eyes. She was short, roughly 5"3, at most.

I realized I was staring too long when I felt a hand find mine. I looked to see Allura glaring at me slightly. I grinned sheepishly, ducking my head a bit.

"My name's Kinari, and it seems like Athamiel has asked for you." Her eyes drifted over all of us, before mumbling the next part. "But so soon?"

She looked particularly worried after that, but quickly brushed it off.

"Can you explain to us why we're here?" I asked, unconsciously putting my arm around Allura.

"No, not yet. When the time comes, you will know, but for now, you'll have to stay in the dark. I apologize." She looked at me, a sincere look in her green gaze.

"I've heard you guys mention Angels? What's that about?" Lydia asked, having not spoken up at all up until now. Kinari sighed, smiling a bit before sitting behind a table. There really wasn't anything special about the table. It was plain actually, nothing on it. At all.

"There are many Angels, but the Angels we generally speak about are the Archangels. Now, before I get into detail about them, maybe our dear King would like to explain a little about us and who we're facing?" Kinari glanced over her shoulder at a figure standing against the wall behind her, with a small smile on her lips.

The King was tall, but by no means old. He was a rather large man, but it was all muscle. He didn't dress like what you expect a king to dress like, he was dress in full armor, of gold and silver and marked with words I couldn't understand.

"Yes, we are, what most people will identify us as, the Guardians. At one point we were called 'the Light' as opposed to those we face, who call themselves the Shadow. But nowadays, the Guardians is what people identify us as." He started. His voice wasn't as deep as I expected it to be. "You see, the Angels originally sided with us, it was the main reason this whole village was built in the first place. But lately, the Angels have been more scattered, all over the place. They're not just sided with us anymore."

"The Archangels have become more actve lately. I've been hearing rumors of them being spotted around, but I'm not completely sure if they're very reliable." Kinari said, with a curious look in her eyes.

Just then, someone opened the door, and walked in. It was a female, shoulder length blonde hair and steel grey eyes.

"Sir, we spotted her, a couple miles outside the wall." She supplied in a hurry, before standing at attention, waiting for an order.

The King gave a nod, promptly signaling for her to leave.

"You know, we're not going to get her right? We haven't yet." Kinari said in a careful voice.

"I realize, she's a tough one." I don't know who they were talking about but it didn't take long to find out.

"Wait, who are you talking you talking about?" Meghan asked, a confused tone in her voice.

The King gave us a grim, serious look for a solid minute before even considering the thought of telling us anything. Whoever this has to be very dangerous if it has him being hesitant to tell us.

"A hunter, she's a very skilled hunter. She's respected, at best." He cast his gaze to the floor, his eyes taking on a dark look.

"At worst?" Meghan spoke up again this time after several seconds of silence.

"Feared. She's killed a whole squadron on her own, single-handedly with just a pair of daggers." There was a chill in the air, as if someone had sucked out all the heat.

'A whole-' I thought but cut myself off.

"How big is squadron, generally?" I asked, though I hadn't intended to initially.

"Thirty to fifty people." We all held our breath for a couple seconds. She managed to kill that many people, on her own, with only a pair of daggers. Hopefully, I don't end up on the wrong end of that anytime soon.

"What's her name?"

"Roxanna"


	3. 3 Fair Game

Chapter 3: Royal Blood

June's POV

Like always, the slience after didn't last long because he got into explaining roles and what everything meant, well, for the most part anyways.

There were two different branches, the Alpha wing, or the military branch, and the Delta wing, or the magic branch.

If you want to get into the military branch, you can either become an archer, a soldier or a warlord. The only reason you don't see many archers in the village because most of them work at the wall, and they don't live in this part of the village anyways.

A warlord is a commander, they're trained to fight, and they're trained in basic magic.

The rest are set up in patrols, which usually hold less then a squad, about 5-10 people, and consists of a warlord and several soldiers, and as we've learned, squads consist of roughly 30-50 people.

In the magic branch, you can be a summoner, a mage or an alchemist. They were self explanatory, a summoner an summon creatures, animals and monsters. The summoners are often out on the battlefield as trackers or fighters depending on what they summon. Mages are masters of all sorts of magic, though they can specialize if they wanted to. Alchemists can create new things, from potions to medicine. Most medics are here, in the magic branch.

The next thing we had to do was choose what we wanted to be, what we wanted to do. I chose to be a summoner. Sam and Lance chose to be soldiers, Meghan and Lydia chose to be archers, May decided to be an alchemist, Chris decided to be a warlord, and Allura chose mage.

I watched as Kinari finished explaining some stuff to Sam before backing away, smiling.

"One last thing! There are rumours that the Chosen are reincarnations of the last group of heroes that were chosen by the Angels, we called them the Kyuuseishu. " Kinari explained, sitting down at the table, as we never actually did leave the Prophet's house. "Much like you all, there were nine of them. Each had a trait or a title to them, which they were known by."

"Really? If we're really the reincarnations, does that mean it's been passed on to us?" I asked, curious.

"I'm not sure, maybe. But anyways, you'll hear people call them by their titles. Of course, those weren't their real names, but they've been lost with the years."

No one asked how long ago they lived but I'm sure someone wanted to. I was about to ask what their titles were when she handed out scrolls, one to each of us.

"These hold any information that might answer any questions, I can't stay or long. You guys are going to need to be ready for tomorrow, you're going to be assigned mentors and your training starts tomorrow. Until then, rest. Or read, whichever one you'd rather do." She finished with a slight smile before ushering us out the door.

"I know what I'm doing." Sam said, with a grin as she eyed the scroll like it was her next meal. Just then, something sped past my vision, though it was about the size of a large bee. Or something like that.

Whatever it was stopped in front of Sam, making her go wide eyed at the little flying... whatever it was.

"Are...are you a fairy?" Sam asked, rather bewildered.

"Fae, I'm one of the fae. Good guess though." She spoke (turns out, it was a she), giggling. Now when you think of fairy or something of the like, you'd probably imagine the voice to be rather high pitched.

Well, in this case, her voice was rather normal.

"I've been sent to show you all to where you'll be staying." She squeaked and flew around to take a good look at all of us. "My name's Coriana"

"So, is there anything else we should know?" Chris asked, looking rather curious.

"Oh, I'll explain that on the way. Now, follow me!" She sounded rather excited if anything. She started to fill us in on everything we didn't know (which seemed obvious enough because the questions we asked her before she started explaining included: "do dragons exist?").

"Ok, there are several... uh... how do I put this... beings and spirits that live both inside and outside the village. The ones you'll meet inside the village are rather friendly, although they can be rather grumpy sometimes." She turned, so she now flying backwards.

"Wait, what are these "spirits" and "beings"?" Sam wondered, waving her hands around a bit.

"Well, they include vampires, werewolves, different types of nymphs, there are the wild fae. Uh... there are the forest and woodland guardians. Those are the most you'll find, you might meet the occasional chimera or manticore, but they don't really live around here, so you don't have to worry too much about them." She smiled, counting all of them off her fingers. "And before you ask, dragons do exist but they're rarely ever seen. They're solitary creatures, most of them don't bother getting involved with us."

"Ok, so that's that?" I said, following Coriana around a corner.

"What else do you all need to know? Hm, well, there are the water nymphs, the Naiads and the Nereids. Naiads are fresh water nymphs, and Nereids are the salt water nymphs, along with Oceanids, ocean nymphs. They look like what you would know as mermaids, but do NOT call them that." She warned, in a tone that clearly said that it was not a good idea in the least.

"Why not?" Sam raised an eyebrow at this, confused.

"It just doesn't sit right with them, it makes them mad too. I don't know what they do when you call them that, but it's nothing good. Oh, and they're huge flirts." She wiggled her fingers around as she said that last part. She then shrugged. "That's really about it. The vampires and werewolves have had a tense peace treaty going on, so you don't have to worry about them fighting but they might attack you i they're hungry and desperate enough."

"They attack people?" Allura gasped, eyes widening.

"Occasionally, but it doesn't happen often enough to be a problem." Coriana smiled and turned another corner before stopping. "Here we are!"

"Whoa..." I murmured. We all stood there staring up at the house.

Because it wasn't just a house.

"This is going to be awesome." Someone whispered, which made the rest of us laugh.


	4. 4 Playing Predator

**Chapter 4: Playing Predator**

Chris' POV

It took us a few seconds to register we had to go inside. We rushed towards the front door, Sam and I ended up trying to go in at the same time, which caused a bit of a fight but I let her in first.

Because, you know, I'm a good friend.

When I got inside, Sam had already threw herself on the couch and opened the scroll she had gotten earlier.

June went exploring the house, while May and Meghan went for the kitchen. Lance and Allura were nowhere to be found. I didn't have a clue where Lydia went either.

I walked over to the couch where Sam lay, and moved her feet so I can sit, though she ended up moving them back so they ended up on my lap.

I chuckled as I turned to look at her.

"Can you believe this is all real?" She asked, putting the scroll down to talk to me.

"Kind of, I kind of feel like I'm dreaming." I looked at her, as she grinned.

"Yeah, it seems unreal." As she said this, the others walked into the room, and sat around. They finished whatever they were doing quickly.

"Ok, so what are we doing?" Lydia gave us all this look. I don't even know how to to describe it, it was creepy.

"I don't know about you guys, but I'm gonna finish reading this." Sam spoke up first. I rolled my eyes, of course she would.

The rest of the evening went by uneventfully, as we just sat there and talked. Well, we did decide on who got what room, not that it mattered because they all looked the same anyways. There ended up being one empty room because there was supposed to be nine of us but there are only eight right now.

Anyways, we also found out the titles of the last heroes, or what they were called. There was Chinmoku, or the Silence. There's Eiyuu, or the Hero. There's Bushi, the Warrior, Hangyakusha (the Rebel), Honnou (the Instinct), Janen (the Vicious Mind), Kinkou (the Balance) and Kioku (the Memory).

It didn't take long for us to finally decide to go to sleep (although, I'm pretty sure it was roughly midnight when we did).

Sleep brought some weird dreams with it. But I can only remember a lot of blood, and the sound of battle. I remember hearing a voice, it seemed like it was calling my name but it sounded so far away.

The sights and sounds soon faded away as I slowly woke up. I lay there for a couple minutes, taking a guess from how early it was because the sun was just coming up.

Why am I even awake this early?

I didn't have much time to think about it because someone knocked on the door right then.

Guess I'm not the only one awake this early.

I sat up, yawning before getting out of bed. It din't take me long to realize I had fallen asleep in the clothes I wore yesterday. Then again I don't have any other clothes I could wear.

Once I reached the door, it didn't take long to realize who it was on the other side.

"Hurry up! There's someone outside waiting for us!" Lydia yelled, which was quickly followed by the sounds of footsteps.

I opened the door and ran down the stairs, before rounding the corner towards the front door, where everyone else was.

And standing in the doorway was someone wearing armor, he vaguely reminded me of something between a knight, a Roman gladiator, and Iron Man.

"Is this everyone?" he asked, turning to look at all of us, though it was hard to tell because he was wearing a helmet.

"Should be." June replied, waving a hand around tiredly.

"Good, we are to meet with the others at the village gates." He informed, before taking a step out the door.

I sighed, glancing at the others, knowing they weren't totally ready for whatever was coming, but what choice do we have?

I was the first out the door, followed closely by Sam and Lydia. The others slowly trailed out behind.

"My name is Jaruko, and today is the first day of training, you will meet your mentors soon." he said after we started walking. That was all that was said, as no one said a word on the way.

Although it didn't actually take all that long, it felt a lot longer. Maybe it was the silence.

Anyways, once we got there, there were a couple other people. Two wore cloaks, except in different colours. One, the male of the two, had red, black and gold while the other, the female of the two, wore a dark grey one.

Another female wore a white dress with a red and gold vest that reached a little past her knees.

There was a guy standing a bit away against the wall, beside the gate, and finally there was a female that had short hair swept to one side, she had several piercings and her eyes were blood red, and from this distance, the whites of her eyes looked black.

"They will be your mentors. Individually, they will be assigned to you according to what you chose to be." Jaruko supplied, walking up to stand alongside them. Jaruko's eyes darted to me, turning his head slightly indicating that he was talking to me. "I was assigned to Chris, as you chose to be a warlord, correct?"

I nodded, taking a closer look at the man. He had dark blue eyes, and he didn't seem all too old. He stood at about 6 feet.

"You and I will be heading off now, the others will get started when they're ready but you and I will have to start as soon as possible, which means we leave now." He explained.

I shrugged, and followed as he walked past me. I ended up following a couple steps behind him, and it didn't take long before we reached a large building, and there were people everywhere. The place was busy.

"This is the barracks, you'll be assigned to a patrol, though more experienced than you, only because we don't have anymore people in training. I will head that patrol." He had slowed down to walk beside me, and spoke clearly, so I heard every word despite the loud background noise.

"So, when do I meet them?"I asked, looking at the many people walking up and down the hallway.

"Now." came the quick reply as he led me into a room, and I would say it wasn't what I had expected. It was no office, it was just an empty room. 6 other people stood around, though one was actually sitting and another leaned against the wall.

They all shut up as soon as we walked in.

"Is this the newbie?" One asked. He wasn't much taller than me, but he was a little intimidating in full armor, helmet in hand. He had icy blue eyes and messy dark brown hair.

"Luke, cut it out." said a voice from behind him, a hand landed on Luke's shoulder, pulling him backwards. "Don't mind him, he's just glad he's been promoted. I'm Anden, generally I'm the leader of this patrol, but now that Jaruko's here, I'm gonna make the assumption he wants to take charge."

I smiled a bit, nodding. Anden was tall, almost 6 feet but he seemed shorter than Jaruko. He had jet black hair, and bright green eyes. He looked friendlier than the other guys, less intimidating than the other guys even in full armor.

"Hey, I hate to break up the bonding session but introductions can happen as we go, we need to get him geared up." Jaruko's voice boomed, making all of us look up at him. He stood in the doorway, watching us with little to no emotion. "We have training, and something we need to do."

The next few days were a blur, from going to the armory to the weapon storage, to training. It was a full week before we left the village and before I knew, we were on our first 'unofficial' mission, though it was more of a search.

"Who are we looking for?" I looked around, following Anden and Jaruko as we made our way further into the forest. The forest was dark, despite it being the middle of the day, the sunlight that came through the trees looked more like moonlight.

"A hunter." Was all I got and the tone of Jaruko's voice told me he wasn't going to tell us anything more. I looked at Anden, hoping he could tell me something but he wasn't aware that I was looking at him at all.

But he seemed to get the message all the same.

"I don't know anything if that's what you're wondering." he said, walking alongside Jaruko. We continued to walk deeper and deeper into the forest. It was quiet, the rustling sounds of movement in the distance.

A gargled, strangled sound broke the silence, I spun around to see one of the guys drop, his throat slit, and he's just gushing blood.

Everyone else had spun around and started back up, but before anyone could do anything, another guy dropped, blood rushing out of his body through a neck wound.

"What the hell is going on?" I muttered, standing in between Anden and Jaruko.

Luke stood a ways ahead of me, head turning from side to side, he was dropped in a crouch. In about 30 seconds, two more guys dropped, leaving the four of us. Luke spun around, eyes wide, and within seconds, Anden let out a strangled noise from the back of his throat, and fell to his knees. Not long after, Jaruko was pulled backwards, as if someone had grabbed him, he clawed at whatever was dragging him towards the ground. Whatever, whoever was holding him down, had to be pretty damn strong.

It didn't take long before I saw a blade (a bloody one, at that) find it's way out of his mouth.

His body was left to drop to the ground, dead. Anden was still on his knees beside me, though he seemed winded, and he was out of breath. Maybe he had been injured. I looked up and around, to find no one but the three of us.

Suddenly, I was knocked to the ground, the world seemed to spin as I hit the ground black and white spots danced in my vision.

And finally, the attacker became visible, though their face was mostly covered with a mask the only part of their face I could see was their eyes.

Bright electric blue eyes stared at me, and they seemed to glow in the dim light. The attacker looked female. She wore a cloak, I couldn't tell what she wore under. The hood was up, she had a dagger in one hand, covered in blood. She growled and narrowed her eyes.

She reminded me of a cat.

I heard retreating footsteps, probably Luke taking Anden back to the village.

I reached up to grab the attacker's wrists, flipping over, so she was face down, and I placed a knee on her back. She grunted before rolling over, an audible pop sounded soon after, indicating she had dislocated her shoulder in the process.

I had gotten back up on my feet seconds after, standing far enough away. She placed a hand on her shoulder, relocating it. It didn't seem to faze her.

She stared up at me from her spot on the ground. The hood of her cloak had fallen off, her dark hair tumbled over her shoulders. She pulled it back up and disappeared.

Then everything went dark.


	5. 5 True Hunter

**Chapter 5: True Hunter**

Lydia's POV

(Days earlier)

Meghan and I followed our mentor towards our usual training spot, after having an orientation that lasted the last two days.

Her name was Kayda, an elite archer. She was quiet but she was serious. She had shoulder length light brown hair and calculating pale green eyes. Today, we're about to find out how she is as a mentor. We've been coming home late, so we haven't had much time to spend with the others.

I doubt the others have had much time with their training and all either.

The little time we did have together were spent recalling the days events. Sam, Lance and Chris had already started their training yesterday.

"We're here." Kayda informed, finding her way across to the other side of the field.

The day went by slowly but it was packed with training, by the end of it, I was sore and tired. My fingers felt they were about to fall off.

We had worked on managing a bow, and working with the arrows. Tomorrow, maneuverability and movement.

The rest of the week went by tediously, slowly. Kayda was a brutal mentor, pushing us. But it was good as it gave us the chance to become better.

By the time the second week rolled around, Chris had been found unconscious after two of his patrol came back in a panic. What had happened out there wasn't spoken about, and no matter how much we pried, Chris wasn't going to spill anything.

Today was the only day we had off, Chris lie on the couch, Sam sat on the other couch, not far away. The rest of us had found spots around the room. We had spent the last hour in silence.

"Anything interesting?" Sam asked, to no one in particular.

"Not really." I said. Everyone else gave somewhat similar answers.

Tomorrow was the last day we spend training separately. Tomorrow afternoon, we go out exploring, and possibly finding the ninth Chosen.

Chris had been uncomfortable when Anden had come over to give us the news.

Speaking of which, luckily he hadn't been too injured during the attack, so he'll be coming with us, along with Luke.

Whatever had happened out there couldn't have been pleasant.

I sighed, as silence blanketed the room again. Not wanting to continue, I stood up, and went to my room.

It was about time we headed to bed anyways.

After a dreamless sleep, I woke up to sunlight pouring through the window, unlike the first day we had here. Swinging my legs over the side of the bed, I geared up, grabbing my bow and quiver of arrows on my way out the door.

I was one of the first ones up, roughly a couple minutes after Sam. We were followed by the others over the next hour or two. By noon, we were all awake and at the village gates, where we were met by our mentors along with Anden, who had taken over training Chris after Jaruko's death. Luke had been last to arrive, showing up just minutes after we did.

"Okay, we're going to head out, Luke and I will be the only ones accompanying you, though. Stay on your guards." Anden warned before leading us out of the village. I was edgy, nervous, bow in hand. My eyes found their way to the others, noticing the small things. Everyone was ready, alert but Chris looked anxious, nervous, almost paranoid but I wouldn't blame him. Luke was the same, but Anden had better control, he was calm, hand on the handle of is sword that hung at his hip.

I sighed, as I watched the treeline, trying to pick out any movement.

After walking deeper into the forest, the light filtering through the trees so it looked like moonlight.

It was creepy out here only because it looks so much like a scene out of a movie, the trees twisted, and vines seemed to reach out and grab at you. Little lights flew by every now and then.

Finally we reached a clearing, though the trees were tall enough and reached out far enough so that light was still filtered through to look like moonlight despite being the middle of the day.

We stopped here, and looked to Anden, seeing as he's the highest rank here, and he had more experience than any of us.

"Let's take a break, we've been walking for ages." He said turning to look at all of us. I smiled slightly, sitting down, setting my bow down next to me. The only sounds were the sounds of the forest around us, and whatever was among the trees.

"So, what can you tell us about the hunters?" Sam asked from her spot on the ground. She had a sword of her own, though nothing very special about it.

"Why do you wanna know?" Anden looked at her, in slight disbelief.

"Curiosity." Sam replied, coolly.

Anden sighed, before sitting down. "Hunters are solitary, like being on their own."

"Do you know a hunter?" Lance asked, with Allura sitting next to him.

"Yeah, I know one, not personally, but I know one. Hunters takes jobs from us, from anyone, as long as we give them something in return, something of value. They'll give us information too, for the same price." Anden continued.

"Really?" I murmured but he caught it, nodding.

"They have their connections, you know you're working with a good hunter if they have good connections. Some will want more than others, so it's hard to find a good hunter who won't ask for much." He looked around at all of us.

"What about the one that got us?" Chris spoke up, after being silent for so long.

"I can take one guess at who it is, because very few hunters can go invisible like that." Anden had taken out one of his knives twirling it in his hand.

"Why's that?" June inquired, playing with the bracelet she had gotten.

"There's a thing called the Shadow Cloak, allows the wearer go completely invisible, unseen, unheard. Very few hunters have one, and they're only used by hunters." Anden explained, not once taking his eyes off his knife.

"Then who was it, from the attack?" Chris asked, again.

"My best guess, Roxanna. She's the only hunter that uses daggers as her primary weapons. Most hunters use bow and arrows, knives, short swords. She's the only one that uses daggers, and I can see why." Came the reply. We sat around, waiting for more.

"What's so special about those daggers?" I absentmindedly cracked my knuckles, a habit I had somehow developed over training.

"They're the Dragon Daggers, and from what I've heard about them, they're lighter, but just as deadly as any weapon. Legends have it that there are spirits of twin dragons that reside in them, giving the wielder inhuman abilities. And from what I've heard, she got them off of some other hunter who had them beforehand."

No one said anything. But just as Anden got up, someone stepped out of the trees from behind them, I wasted no time in picking up my bow and notching an arrow.

The person had a hood on, and a masked that covered their entire face. They had a race in their step as they continued forward, up to Anden and handing him a rolled up sheet of paper. With no words exchanged, they turned and disappeared as quickly as they came.

As curious as we all were, I can tell that we were all restraining to move to see what was written on it as Anden unrolled it to read it.

"What is it?" I was the first to speak up.

"Well, we now have way to get Roxanna."

"Hey, before we do anything, why are you all so bent on catching her anyways?" Lance asked, taking a step forward.

"She's done things, owe us things, there's lot of reasons. Those and we've been trying to convince her to side with us."

"I thought hunters were neutral." Sam chimed in, curiously.

"Yeah, they are, they don't take sides, but they usually have a preference to a side. Again, Roxanna's the only one who doesn't prefer one, staying equivalent neutral, preferring neither side." Anden explained quickly, before waving for us to follow. "But enough of that, we have something we need to finish."


	6. 6 First calls

**Chapter 6: First Calls**

Sam's POV

We followed Anden through the forest, following a stream we had came across earlier. I'm not sure how long we had been walking but eventually we reached a small lake, several nymphs hung out on the shore, not too far away.

"We were supposed to wait here, Lineus will be doing most of the work." Anden said once we stopped.

The wait didn't actually take long, as he showed up fifteen minutes later, with a kid, no older than 12.

This confused me, what could we be doing with a 12 year old?

The kid, a boy, struggled in his captures arms, making noises but coming out as incoherent noises due to being gagged. He was also blind-folded. He had dark hair and was about 5 feet.

"Here, kid's friends with Roxanna. The two are real close, she'll come looking for him." The man, Lineus, said. "I'll go to her saying I saw him with you. You know where to take him from here."

The boy continued to struggle, as he was passed to Anden. Anden proceeded to knock out the kid.

"What was that for?" I looked at him, confused.

"Just to make sure we can get him back without much struggle." Anden replied, throwing the kid easily over his shoulder.

I watched as Anden said something to Lineus before Lineus disappeared off into the woods, back in the direction he had come from. Anden turned to us, and nodded as a signal for us to head back to the village.

I felt bad for the kid, getting caught up in this. It's not like he ever did anything. At least I hope he didn't do anything.

I turned and followed the others back to the village. I'm not sure what was going on but I didn't like it.

We barely got anywhere when a harsh light appeared not too far away, temporarily blinding us. It lasted several seconds, and when it finally disappeared, it revealed an angel, with huge feathery wings of white, wearing a white cloak, hood up, but his face wasn't hidden, he had clear blue eyes. His gaze had found it's way to me.

No one said a word, as the angel stood there, staring at me.

Then, he slowly lifted his hand towards me. Everyone's attention turned to me, or somewhere above me. I lifted my head, looking up, seeing a shield with a pair of wings.

_'My name is Athamiel, I'm sure you've heard my name come up several times. You, my dear, are my chosen. You now have my blessing. But be warned, as my blessing can also be a burden, but I am trusting you can handle it.'_

I stared at him, wide eyed, as he disappeared as quickly as he came, and as he did, something flashed in front of me.

A sword.

I took it, holding it. It felt light, it felt powerful.

Taking a deep breath, I ended up staring at the sword in my hands, wondering what this all meant. He came and told me he chose me?

Not what I was expecting.

I could feel the others staring at me, though I didn't particularly mind.

"Alright, that was unexected but we need to get to the meeting place." Anden's voice interupted the silence, turning all the attention to him, which was a relief.

"Meeting place? So we're not going back to the village?" May took a step forward, voicing my question.

"Yeah, not just yet. We just need to finish this." Anden said, before leading us down a path I hadn't seen earlier. I sighed for the millionth time, following him. The walk didn't take long, as we reached a spot, with a small waterfall not far away.

"Now what?"

"Now we wait"

It wasn't until a little over hour later that anything interesting happened.

The last hour was uneventful, we had to tie the kid to a tree, but he had quieted down significantly in the last 20 minutes.

"How much longer do you think it'll take?" Lance groaned, knife in hand.

"Not sure, Lineus probably found her by now." Anden replied, from his spot not far from the kid.

"Could be faster, I want to get this over with." I muttered, biting my nails.

Just as I say this, there was a rustling among the trees, causing us all to jump to our feet, ready to attack, but we saw nothing come out.

But then they revealed themselves. It was a girl, about our age, dark hair tumbled past her shoulders, icy emotionless blue eyes stared at us. She walked with unearthly grace, and she held a pair of daggers, the blades silver with gold dragons embedded in it. I couldn't figure out what the hilts looked like.

I held the sword in my hands, having replaced my old one with this one. I had given my old one to Anden, he now wore both swords on his back.

Anden walked forward and met her halfway, talking quietly with the girl. I sighed, knowing we could have to step in if we needed to.

The next set of event happened so quickly, she took a step forward, just to have Anden grab her wrists. Chris, Luke, Lance and I rushed forwards, while Meghan and Lydia drew their bows, arrows notched. Allura, June and May stood by, ready to help if needed. In seconds, she was on the ground, the guys pinned her arms behind her back and made sure she couldn't move, while I had my sword to her neck.

She growled, glaring up at us.

Anden ignored it as he secured her, and signaled Allura and May to grab the boy. At some point she stopped struggling, probably deciding that the boy's safety was more important than her own.

Before I knew it, we were on the path back to the village. I'm not sure how long it took us but eventually we made it back, but by the time we got back, the sun had long gone down, the moon hung in the sky overhead.

We were sent directly back home afterwards, so we were clueless as to what was happening with the pair we had gotten out in the forest.

I sighed, knowing nothing good could possibly come out of this.

As soon as we got back to the house, we all silently went to our rooms, tired and exhausted.

The rest of the night went by somewhat restlessly, as I couldn't sleep through the whole night without waking up again.

The next morning was slow, as we were all still tired and so we all hung around the house, waiting for something to happen. It wasn't until a little after noon that anyone showed up to tell us anything.

I got up to opened the door as someone knocked. No one else had made a move to get up so I decided to do it.

Upon opening the door, I came face to face with Luke, who watched me with a smile.

"Oh, hi." He greeted quickly before I returned the greeting, letting him in.

"What are you here for?" I ask, following him into the living room where everyone else was.

"Well, I got some news. About the pair we brought back yesterday." He sat down in the empty pot next to Chris. I found a spot on the armrest of the same couch.

"Okay, what about them?" Lydia leaned forwards, interest sparking in her eyes.

"Roxy's willing to talk, after a whole night of... convincing." Luke winced as he said this, giving me the feeling he saw the whole thing.

"Alright, is that it?" Lance looked at him from the other side of the room, about ready to get up.

"Yeah, and well, we'd better hurry. The last time I was in there, she was getting impatient and an impatient hunter is never any good."

With that, we all got up and headed for the Interrogation Center.


	7. 7 Angel Wings

_**Chapter 7: Angel Wings**_

Allura's POV

"Ok, we're here, what now? Sam muttered, as we walked through the doors, into the dimly lit building.

Luke replied with something I didn't quite catch. I didn't look at them, nor did I say anything as I followed Luke down a series of hallways, the others walking around me.

After making another right, we found ourselves standing in a hallway that ended in a deadend, but had a door on opposite sides.

In front of one door, stood a man, just a little under 6 feet tall. He wasn't wearing armor, but had a sword hanging off his belt.

"About time, we got Roxanna. Kid's in the other room, try to get something out of him." He said.

"I thought we were helping you with her?" Chris asked, looking rather confused.

"We have enough people in there as it is. Besides, someone has to keep an eye on the kid. Hanging around a hunter as skilled as Roxanna has to have its perks." The man said, nodding towards the other door "No one's talked to him since we brought them in."

I'm sure someone wanted to protest but Luke shut us up when he opened the door. The rest of us followed him in, me being the last one in.

I closed the door behind me then turned to look at the room, it was pretty empty except on table on the right side of the room, against the wall furthest from the door. A light hung from the ceiling, right above the single chair in the centre of the room. Tied to the chair was the boy, dark hair a mess, a blindfold over his eyes. He sat slumped in his chair, looking rather defeated.

But he knew we were in the room, as he had lifted his head up to look at us, though he probably couldn't see us through the blindfold.

Luke went behind him, and took off the blindfold to reveal pale blue, almost silver/grey eyes. It was more a silver with a blue tint.

He stared at us, with close to no emotion.

"Alright kid, let's start off with something basic. What's your name?" Luke moved in front of him, looking at him in the eyes.

"Damien." The kid replied simply.

"Wait, Luke, do you know why we're keeping them like this?" I asked, taking a few steps forward.

He looked at me, blue eyes stared into mine.

"It's mostly Roxy, she's a reliable hunter, she has a few close contacts within the village, but lately we've been losing men to her. She's been taking jobs from other people. We're not completely sure who, the Shadow hasn't made any moves lately." He explained. "So to answer your question, we want answers."

I nodded taking a step back, standing between Lance and Sam.

Luke turned towards the table and looked at whatever was placed on it.

Sam and I walked over, the others didn't bother moving as they could see it all from their position anyways.

"The captain had me check this all out last night. Roxy's been handling some pretty nice weapons." Luke eyed everything before turning back around. Damien hadn't said a word.

I looked at everything on the table, and despite taking on the position of a mage, I had learned more than enough about weaponry, and although we didn't talk about Hunters weapons in detail, I was told that they had a variety from the jobs they take on.

We don't talk much about Hunters at all, and even the others weren't told much. Apparently they wanted us to learn about that while we were together.

"I almost forgot but Anden wanted me to talk to you about the Hunters, now's a good a time as any other." I chuckled to myself as Luke said this, as if he read my mind.

"Alright, cool." Someone said from the other side of the room.

On the table, lay a set of throwing knives (black handle, silver blade, a simple design), they looked sharp ebough to be able to probably get through weak armour if thrown hard enough. Next to it lie a couple darts, possibly either tranquilizers or poison. There was also a black cylinder, I picked it up and realized there was a button on the side.

I glanced over my shoulder at Luke.

"What is this?" He shrugged.

"I didn't want to do anything to it, in case." I nodded, as he looked at it.

"It's a collapsible bow." Damien explained, eying me as I looked at the weapons.

Sam suddenly took interest as she took it from my hand to look at it. I shrugged as she tried it out. I watched as she pressed the button, the bow coming out, the string coming out near the bottom. She set it up, and once she did she pulled on the string a couple times.

"I wanna see that." Lydia walked over to look at it, and I wasn't too surprised as she was an archer and all.

Turning back to the table, there was also a pair of brass knuckles, several mini explosives (I'm sure they were a lot more powerful than they looked), a pair of hookswords, and a pair of daggers. The daggers she had when she approached us.

I picked one up, and held it. It was beautiful, the silver blades seem to glow and the golden dragons looked like they might have been a living creature. The blade was double-edged. The hilt was shaped like the claw of a dragon, it came up one side of the blade. The actual handle looked like it was made of scales. It was black in colour. I put it down beside it's pair, the rubies in the dragons eyes stared up at me.

My attention turned back to the scene behind me when Luke spoke up again, and by this time, Sam and Lydia had put down the bow, in its collapsed form.

"Alright, do you know who's giving Roxy the jobs?" Luke leaned on the wall in front of Damien.

"No." Damien stared at Luke. This kid's brave.

"Does Roxy know who they're from?" Chris stood near the door, but he walked towards Luke, eyes on Damien.

Damien shrugged, indicating he didn't know.

"Do you know how she's getting these jobs?" Luke and Damien had a mini stare down before anyone said anything.

"Through notes. They were handed through multiple people, we'll never know who it was from originally."

Luke sighed, before sitting down.

"We're not going to get anywhere with you, are we?" Damien shook his head.

"I don't know enough." Luke laughed.

"You're a smart kid, I can tell that much, at least." Damien just rolled his eyes, turning his gaze to the ground

"Hey, Luke. Why are Hunters neutral?" That question came out of my mouth before I had time to think about it.

He glanced at me, his blue eyes looked bright, they reflected the light from the single source in the room.

"It goes back a long way. It's complicated. Way back, when the village was in its early years, and by that I mean within the first couple centuries after it was built, there was two sides. They were what you know now, as the Guardians, or the Organization, and the Shadow." Luke started, making hand gestures as he spoke. "This was the time where everything was absolute. This is going to sound kinda stupid, but it was either you're good or you're bad. It's black or white. Either, or. You couldn't be in between."

"Ok, where do the Hunters come in?" Lance had somehow found a way to get his arm around me and I hadn't noticed up until he spoke up.

"Well, it wasn't after about, I don't know, 800 years? More or less, until the first few Hunters appeared. At first it was pretty sketchy but they were quickly integrated and accepted and it was fine." Luke closed his eyes, leaning his head back. "To answer your question as to why they're neutral, they believe in balance. The grey area no one else seemed to see. They believed everyone was born with both good and evil, that it wasn't actually inside of us, it was more in the decisions we make."

This was met in silence, Luke opened an eye and looked at us, before continuing.

"The Hunters were, and still largely are, protectors. It's kinda hard to believe since they're known to kill if they get something good out of it. But they are natural protectors, they're the ones protecting the nature spirits in the forest and making sure they don't kill each other and making sure we don't kill them."

We all shared a look before turning back to Luke.

"Alright, so Hunters aren't bad, but aren't they more solitary?" I glanced at Sam from the corner of my eye, knowing that she's been paying attention.

"Yeah, but there are very few who actually don't hang around on their own, they just like working alone." He bit his lip, thinking before he said anything else.

"Right, there's this thing that connects back to the balance, that whatever you do, something has to happen to balance it out. For every good thing, whether it be an event or an action, comes a bad thing and vice versa."

"Alright. Now, what about Roxy? What's so special about her?" With that question we all turn to Damien. If anything, he knows her best.

"What? I don't everything about her. Hunters are honest but secretive." He spit out quickly as he noticed us all turn to him.

"How's that supposed to work?" Lydia spoke up, eying the kid.

"Hunters work on a system of where if you give them some of value, they'll give it back. That's how their jobs work. Whatever you want, you have to give back. If you want information, you'll have to give them something of value, but depending on the Hunter, that value will vary." Luke elaborated, looking at Damien. "You'll know, they'll tell you what they want in return."

"It's how Hunters get all the stuff they have. They're not like you where everything is given to you, they get it in exchange for something. It's always people coming to them now." Damien added. "Roxy's been real busy with a lot of them lately."

"I can see that." Luke nodded towards the table, with the weapons. "Where'd she get those hookswords, by the way? Those things are hard to find."

"Off some guy. I'm not completely sure, he was pretty sketchy, but she took the job for the hookswords. It was a good deal, she got the bow, arrows and throwing nives out of that too." Damien rolled his eyes again. He was being rather casual. "But yeah, Hunters won't tell you shit if you don't give them the right stuff. But anyways, she doesn't tell me everyting. Plans maybe, but history? Rarely."

"Really? What do you know about her?" Came the question, but it was met was silence.

"I don't know if she wants me to tell you these things, but I think her entire family is dead except for her mother. She rarely talks about them, and whenever we bring it up, she just mentions something about them being long gone and how much she doesn't like her mother."

"Is that it?" I asked, playing with the hem of my sleeve.

"That's the most interesting thing I know. She's pretty nice if you get to know her, real smart." He looked like he was about to say something else but got cut off.

"Wait, earlier you said we? I thought it was just you and her?" Chris asked from his spot next to Luke.

"Well, it's not just me, there's a Wolfhound-"

"Hold on, wolfhound?" Sam wasn't as much confused as she was curious.

"Wolfhounds are part wolves, part Hellhound." He explained before finishing his sentence. "And there's an Orc."

Sam and Chris shared a look before looking back at Damien.

"Orc?" They asked at the same time.

"Yeah, his name's Vorcus. Orcs are part Gigantes, and part other thing," He said, before quickly adding in, "A Gigantes is like a giant, for anyone who's confused."

Just when we were about to say something else, the door opened, Anden stood in the doorframe and from what I can see, there were multiple people behind him.

"Let's move, something's happened."


End file.
